hikikomori

is best described not as a diagnostic category of mental illness, but as a pattern of behaviors involving social withdrawal.

Saito (2001) - - He believes the term hikikomori should not be used as diagnostic category because the term expresses only a condition or phenomenon, not a diagnostic category of mental illness. He suggests that hikikomori is better described as a pattern of behaviors involving social withdrawal. Further, he argues that hikikomori is not a psychotic illness, and that the avoidance and withdrawal symptoms are not related to negative symptoms that one might expect in a schizophrenic spectrum illness.

Tamaki SaitoThinkers

Tamaki Saito